Monday, February 24, 2014

Our investigators with their CTR rings! (Notice in the background, Hna Hoj giving the investigator a Book of Mormon)

Puppies

This was one of those weeks where nothing in particular
stood out as, like, "THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED TO EMAIL HOME!" It was a great week!But, sorry if this email is a little lame.

1. Puppies.I spent a good deal of a few of my days with
a specific few dogs, that I feel were a part of my missionary service.Animals and children – I’m telling ya, those
have been a theme of my mission. But anyway, we were tracting and we knocked on
a door of this one trailer. As we knock,
we see a huge German Shepherd emerge from under a pile of garbage. In my mind, I think: “Yupp, this is the end of
my life...I am about to perish." But,
turns out it was the nicest dog known to man! We named him Lazos. He emerges and starts
licking us and what not, when we hear these cries from another dog coming from
the yard. We look behind more piles of
trash and find another German Shepherd chained up. It was the skinniest dog I have EVER seen. You
could see every single bone of the body of this dog. She was just crying and crying. I immediately start making my way through the
piles of trash to this little thing (the people weren't home, btw). Once I got close I went with caution because I
didn't know if she was going to be mean or not. But finally, I get to her and
she just comes and lays her head on my chest (yes, that is how big she was)
and, tambien, is the nicest dog ever. I
pull out the baby food I have in my purse and start to squeeze it into my hand
for her to eat. After she finishes her
baby food she walks over to a little igloo kennel and starts to whimper. I walk over . . . and discover 8 little
babies. They had to have been only a few days old. It was so heart breaking.
This dog was SO SKINNY, there was no way it had eaten in dayyyyys which means
those babies hadn't eaten either. So to sum it up, I was heartbroken. We went back a few days later and brought
water and some homemade dog food for Mamita (that's what I named the girl GS). We didn't touch the babies the first time b/c
we were scared she might be angry, but we held them the second time around and
they were so cute. It was equally as
heart breaking. We called the ASPCA to come and get them.

2. Cubanos.There was one day, Saturday (it is always
Saturday), when all of our plans had fallen through and all of our back up
plans and all of our back up back up plans, so we were standing in the road
thinking, "Well, what are we going to do now?" A few blocks away there is a little strip mall
of sorts with a Panderia and a washeteria y algunas taquerias, so I was like
"Let's just walk down to the Panderia and see if there is anyone we can
talk to”. We get down there and there
is no one. Ha. Great. But, there was a
bench outside the washeteria so I was
like, "Let's go sit on the bench and we will figure it out from
there." We walk over and sit down
and start to talk about where we could go or what we could do. It was getting
dark and we were in a "part of town" (aka one block) that is a little
"rougher" (Not even CLOSEEEE to Gulfbank) that we aren't supposed to
be in once it gets dark, so we were trying so hard to think of places we could
go. After a few minutes two men walk out of the washeteria and I thought,
"That is an interesting accent.....Argentina? No. Colombia? No.Where are they from?" There was even one point when I wasn't sure
they were even speaking Spanish. I
leaned forward and said, "Habla Espanol?" They were like,
"Duh" (that isn't actually what they said, haha).I said:
"Where are you from?" They replied with some city that I had never
heard of.I say: "Okay, de cual PAIS?" And they say, in unison, "CUBA! Somos Cubanos!"
Oh man! I was so excited! I have only
known two Cubans my whole mission and they are my favorite because their
Spanish is so different.. It is like trying to put a puzzle together. We start
chatting and got through all the pleasantries, etc., etc., and finally got to the gospel. A had met with missionaries, but stopped
because of his wife. When I asked if they had ever heard of the Book of Mormon A is like, "Yeah, I have one!"
Haha. Then I started to talk to J and he goes
off about polygamy and food storage. He
had a really deep positive understanding of both subjects. I offered him the Book of Mormon in my hands and he gladly
accepted it and told me, without me even inviting him, that he was going to
read it. They were just up here from
Miami, so I won’t be seeing them again . . . except for maybe in Heaven. :)

It was a small moment, but a testimony builder that as
missionaries, sometimes our plans don't work out; but, as long as we are doing
our best, Heavenly Father will place people in our path that we can share the
gospel with. It goes for members and
missionaries alike--just open your mouth!

WHHHHHAttttt a week. I thought of a couple different names
for this email, but the one that won OBVIOUSLY took precedence over the others.

The other names I thought of were:

The One When I Saw a Road Runner

The One with Training Round 2

Let's explain them, why don’t we:

1. The One When I Saw A Road Runner. You guys, real
life, I saw a Road Runner. I chased it.
They are called Road Runners for a reason--those things are stinkin’ fast! I didn’t
initially know it was a Road Runner. I
just thought it was a very colorful, fancy type of bird; and so, clearly, being
the person I am, I needed to try and catch it. So I did, but then, it ran away from me—and then
I was a little frustrated because it wasn’t flying, but it was running and it
was out running me! That little bird was out running me! But, I got some sweet
pictures. Then a man in a car informed me it was a Road Runner. I am so
thrilled that I saw one of those in real life. Wile E. Coyote where you at?

2. The One with Training Round 2. Surprise! Hna Hoj
and I are trio training! We got our baby on Thursday and she is great. Her name is Hermana McOmber.She is 5'10" and from Orem, UT. She is
probably one of the most beautiful people I have ever seen in my life and
people like to come up to my companions and ask if they are twins and then
proceed to tell them they should be on Miss America. Then they turn to me
and ask me what part of Mexico I'm from. Hey, maybe I’m not Miss America, but I
will TOTALLY take people thinking I’m Hispanic. Anyway, yes, both my companions
are beautiful. Hna McOmber was, like, a real life model. She is also a ballroom
dancer. We love her! She is great. I am excited to be training again. Last time
I trained I gained one of my best friends ever, Miss Lizzie Koch, so training
is a good thing in my mind, haha.

3. The One Where J got BAPTIZED. This happened
people! My thug of thugs got baptized and it was so fabulous. Man, I love this
kid so much. He will be a forever friend. One of my favorite experiences
actually came BEFORE his baptism though, in our last lesson with him before he
became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was Friday night and we were in the home of
Hna R. It was the first time Hna McOmber had met him, and so he was
telling her and Hna R his story. Halfway through our discussion Hna
R's tenant walks in and begins to move things from her car upstairs. We
invited her to join us, but she kindly declined and just continued to pass
through the lesson as we were talking. She would say little things every now
and then, but for the most part kept to herself. After the lesson, Hna R
invited us to stay and eat as long as we were willing to help her a little in
the kitchen. We gladly accepted and she invited me to say the closing prayer. I
did so. When we ended the closing prayer, her tenant, J [female J, different from J, the young man, who was baptized on 2/15/14], was standing in
the kitchen crying. We all immediately run over and hug her. Through her tears
she says that she has separated herself from God a lot lately because of some
things that have happened in her life, but seeing us all gathered together
talking about God and then hearing us pray in Spanish (we had been speaking Eng
before that) just helped her to realize that she needed to go back to church
(She is Catholic). The best part of this
whole night, though, came next. We started just talking like normal and started
to prepare the food to eat.Hna R,
the other hermanas and I are cutting some food and J is finishing making
her food on her other counter where J [him] is standing. I stopped listening to our conversation and
made my ears pay attention to J [him] as he says to J [her]: "Hey . . . have
you tried praying? That really helped me." I could’ve died. I was SO proud of him! Oh man! I can’t
adequately express the joy that filled my soul in that moment listening to Mr.
J. R. be a little missionary! It might sound like a small thing, but it
was a BIG thing. It was the coolest.

I love being a missionary! The longer I am here, the more I
fall in love with it. It is such a privilege to help a new missionary
along the way as they begin THEIR journey of falling head over heels in
love with missionary work. I am so grateful that I was able to take part in the
baptism of J.If I spend the rest of
my mission working as hard as I can and no more baptisms occur, I
will leave my mission feeling like I have done the work that the Lord has given
me to do, just because of him. I love him so much.

"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in
crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how
great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" D&C 18:15

I love you all,

Hna B

P.S.:In addition to
some birthday mail, I also got my mail from Waller this week (Christmas cards)!The following people deserve a big shout out:

Sister Tryon: You would be surprised the number of people
your letters reach! I read mine out loud to my companions almost every week--they
have all loved them! You are touching more people than you realize!

Wowza, yes world, I am 20 years of age!20 going on 14, I always say—except for the
fact that I am real life balding, so maybe 20 going on 95. I thought the women
in my family started to lose their hair when they began having children, and
that it grew back once they stopped. But guess what, I am DEF not with child
and am DEF losing my hair. COOL, welcome to the ancient life.

This week was a glorious one! In fact, I think all weeks in
the Woodlands have been glorious! I love this place!

This week I met the cutest little Southern woman I
"ever did saw". She is
Catholic as Catholic can be, but she accepted us to come back to help her
around the house. As we dusted her living room we talked to her about her life.
If I have ever heard a love story that
needs to be made into a Hallmark movie, it is this one. This is stuff you only hear about in the story
books!

Some new neighbors moved in and so she went to greet them. On their mantle was a picture of "the
most handsome boy I ever did see." He was off at war and dressed in "his
uniform, real nice." Without her
consent, though she admits she later did not mind, his mother sent him her
address. They began to send letters back and forth. He came back from the war
when she was about 17 years old. He came
home to Texas where their life whisked them away into a summer romance. She
registered for her senior year of high school and he went back to the military,
being stationed in Alabama. "I just decided that I couldn’t live another day
without him. So, his mother helped me.I
didn’t even tell my parents I was leavin. I packed my bags. I got on one of
them Greyhound buses and I headed to Alabama. I had never been farther than
Galveston in my whole life. I showed up at his door without him knowin I was
comin and he didn’t know what to do with me! He got us a little house and we
got married.’

I couldn’t make this stuff up, people. The cutest and
funniest part of the whole story was that I asked "Did you graduate from high
school then?" She said:"Well, in those days, we didn’t use the
term 'pregnant'.Oh no, it was called
'being in the family way'.When I
registered for classes the principal told me that girls 'in the family way' couldn’t
graduate.That was fine because I wasn’t
in 'the family way', but by the time it rolled around for me to graduate, I WAS
'in the family way.'" Haha. Oh man! It was sooooo cute! I was just sitting there dusting her little
animal figurines with tears in my eyes!

But on a more spiritual note:

This week I was reflecting on D&C 6:18:"Therefore be diligent; stand by my
servant Joseph, faithfully, in whatsoever difficult circumstances he may be for
the word’s sake." My mind was often
caught up to thinking about the Book of Mormon and the role it plays in our
lives. We did a role play in Zone Meeting where we invited people to read the
Book of Mormon. As we were "being
taught" I thought about how, so often as missionaries, we sit in people’s
houses and invite them to read the Book of Mormon and promise it will bless
their lives (going off of a letter I received this week from Luke), but never
EVER explain how IMPORTANT it really is. The Book of Mormon is the GREATEST
tool we have as missionaries, besides the Spirit Himself.

We have been teaching a couple se llaman B y R. They are
fabulous, but they have a lot of marital problems. They have two young children
who are off the walls crazy (but cute as can be) and an older, adult daughter
who is a recent convert to one of the White wards (never met her). The lessons
we have had in the past with them had been good, but the kids are so crazy that
it has been hard to really invite the Spirit. Well, last night we go into this
lesson with them and, let's just say, it was real awkward to start off with.
The kids were carazy.There was
screaming, running in terror of getting hit with...objects.There was a little marriage counseling at one
point; there was a lot of yelling and all in all it was just loco. We both sat
there, mostly in silence and just praying a lot about what we were supposed to
do, how we could invite the Spirit and what we were supposed to say.

There were a lot of avenues that we could have taken with
the situation that was taking place in front of our eyes. We had planned to
read with them Helaman 3:24-30. We did that. It was good and calm for a few
minutes, then one of the children spoke out of turn and there was some more
yelling and castigation (Is that a word in Eng or did I just take a Spanish
word and make it into an Eng one?). Ay. Just when we thought there was no
hope, the couple began to argue, rather civilly, but argue none the less. Then
it just got quiet. No one was talking, just little noises here and there from
the kids whispering. It was all quiet.

In my mind I think: "This is my chance!" So, I began speaking. I began to talk about the
scriptures we had just read and how we come unto Christ through the scriptures.
Then I just stopped and I said: "You know what? Question: Why do you think
this Book is important?" I continued (roughly, in my Spanish to English
translation): "It says in these
scriptures we just read that those who study the scriptures will find a place
at the side of God. Is that something you want? I know it is something I do.
Hermanos, The Book of Mormon isn’t another Book. We aren’t here to read you
some nice words and leave. We are not here for Bible study. We are here to
invite you to participate in Salvation. If THIS Book is true, then Joseph Smith
is a Prophet of God. And if Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God, then the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Kingdom of God on earth. We are not
here to invite you to just another church, for surely it is not just another
church. We know that there is one Lord, one faith and one baptism, Ephesians
tells us that much. That means there is one way to heaven. One way to sit at
the right hand of God.One way to live
with your family for eternity. THAT is why we are here. THAT is why you need to
read. THAT is why you need to pray—because you are holding it all in your
hands. If THIS BOOK is true, it is all true, and then you must act on the
knowledge you have." Then we bore testimony and it was silent. I mean
silent. You could have heard a pin drop in that place. B just goes: "Okay...we will read." (Then they
invited us to come eat Fajitas!) It was a teaching moment where the Spirit
could truly testify to their hearts, because we were testifying of truth.

The Book of Mormon is the COOLEST and GREATEST blessing I
can even imagine receiving. I am grateful that Joseph had the strength to go
into the Grove. I am grateful for that man, because now, we have the greatest
Book the world has ever known. In the words of Parley P. Pratt: "That book
of books."

I invite every single person reading this blog to read the
Book of Mormon. If you don’t have one, go to www.mormon.org
and request one. If you do have one, open it up. I have often wished, as a
missionary, that I could go back to the days I sat with my friends during lunch
as they poked fun at Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and that I could’ve
been a better defender of the truth. That I could’ve stood alongside B.H
Roberts—“About the accomplishments of Joseph Smith, B.H Roberts said: 'Match
it! Match it, I say, or with hand on lips remain silent when his name is
spoken.' "

Monday, February 3, 2014

This past weekend, Jeff and I traveled to Concord for the baptism of our grandson, Benjamin. It was wonderful. We attended church in Kirstin's ward. After our meetings ended at 12 pm, I waited until the companion ward, that meets in that building, completed its Sacrament Meeting. I then went in and found this lovely sister, Pam Hosking, mother of Hermana Hosking who was Alivia's first companion in Waller, TX. Jeff and I also met Hermana Hosking's father, Bishop Hosking. It was wonderful to spend a few moments speaking with them about our daughters (and Sister Hosking's other daughter -- currently serving a full-time mission in France)! Tender mercies.

I also thought about naming this email: "The One where
I was at an investigator’s house and she asked me if I would be willing to
marry a Mexican and then her son called and she made me talk to him on the
phone and then he told me he wanted to know me and asked for my phone number
and it was the most awkward conversation of my life"; but,I decided that would be just too long. I also thought of naming it: "The One Where B walked up during our
lesson with M and said, 'Are ya’ll smoking?’ –to which I replied, 'Yes,
B, we are Mormon missionaries and we are sitting with your friend smoking
weed; NO we are not smoking!'—to which he replied, 'Why are you talking to the
Mormons?', --to which M replied, 'Because I like to learn about God. I
read the Bible, you know' –to which B replied ,'You do NOT read the Bible',
and then B joined us for our lesson and loved the Plan of Salvation."But, that too, was much too long.

SO I decided to title it about something of much more
importance.

This week we got to go to the temple, aka, the greatest part
of every transfer! I love the temple and fully intend on coming home from my
mission and being a temple worker between my return from my mission and my
return to school. Both Hna Hoj and I had
family names to bring to the temple, so we had permission to do all ordinances.
So, we got there several hours before
our session started and we went up to the family ordinance desk to have our
name cards printed out and the Temple President walks out and greets us. He
asks us where we were from and what mission we were serving in. He then asked
if we had brought family names, which we affirmed. He then started to talk with us about the
importance of Family History work. It
was awesome.

We went down to the baptistery and got changed.We were informed that President Crane was
again going to join us. He comes down and speaks to us about ordinances, and I
will just leave it by saying he unfolded a few mysteries of the Kingdom of God—at
least ones that were mysteries to me. IT
WAS FABULOUS. We then received baptism and [other ordinances] for all of our ancestors. Once we had completed those
ordinances, we still had a little time before our session began, so we were
sitting on the couch talking quietly and reading the scriptures when, once
again, President Crane joined us.We
talked about our experiences thus far that day and what we had learned. We also
talked of missionary work. At the end of
the conversation, with tears in his eyes he says: "I am so excited for the people you two
teach; you are great." It was such an amazing experience to talk and learn
from him and THEN have him compliment us. Man, blessings from the Lord left and
right. How grateful I am.

This week was Fast Sunday and we were having a mission-wide
fast. Hermana Hoj and I decided that we would send a text to all the members in
our area inviting them, as well, to join with us and add the missionary work of
our Ward to their fast. We got a reply from 1 sister. Her name is Hermana
R. She is a recent convert . . . and it was probably one of
the first times she had ever fasted. She asked us what exactly it was she did
and that was the end of it. That Sunday, at about 3:30, we got a text saying:
"HERMANAS I AM SO HUNGRY!! What was the time that I was supposed to end my
fast?" We were SO grateful for the fact that she had ACTUALLY fasted and
assured her that the Lord would bless her for the faith she had already
demonstrated and that she could break her fast. She replied: "I thought I
was supposed to wait until 5? I have already sacrificed this much, I would like
to finish it right." I was so touched by that response. We replied and
told her that we knew the Lord would bless HER as well as la obra misional in this
area for her faith alone. Truly, when we are exactly obedient the Lord blesses
us.

"Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the
whole duty of man" Ecc 12:13

LOVE YOU!

P.S:I also thought
of naming this week’s email: "The One where it REAL LIFE snowed in Texas .
. . Brr"; or perhaps, "The One where I realized I was an old
missionary because someone told me that before she came on her mission she
could do videos on Instagram and I was ASTONISHED."